Connie Jenkins, President
Connie Jenkins began as a volunteer for the Channel Islands National Park Rocky Intertidal Monitoring team shortly after her first trip to Santa Rosa Island in 2005. She became a regular member of CIR’s Anacapa restoration project crew in 2012 and joined CIR’s board in 2022.
Jenkins has a BFA and MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder and had a long career teaching drawing and painting at several Southern California colleges and universities. She continues to be a professional artist and is an avid gardener. She lives and works at her home in the Santa Monica Mountains in Ventura County with her husband Tom Jenkins who is also an artist.
Jenkins comes to the CIR Board with a long record of community activism including as a board member of Heal the Bay, Ocean Park Projects, a homeless services agency, Campaign California, the City of Santa Monica Art Commission, as Chief Negotiator for the Ventura Community Colleges Faculty AFT Local 1828, and as a member the Santa Monica Community College Board and the Santa Monica Malibu School Board.
Angelica Daus, Treasurer
Angi Daus currently serves as the Marketing Coordinator for the Santa Barbara Airport. Angi has been in this role for only a year, however, has played an integral part in the changes needed to ensure SBA is operating safely and efficiently during the COVID-19 pandemic. Angi is also the founder of LL Bird Consulting, an organizational development consulting practice, and services on the Board of Directors for A Different Point of View and The Arts Fund of Santa Barbara. Angi has her MPA from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota and her BA from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. Angi grew up in Wisconsin but has been grateful to call beautiful California her home since 2014. It serves her needs to be outside running, hiking, backpacking, walking her dog and wine tasting.
Scott Orlosky, Secretary
A long-time lover of the outdoors, Scott Orlosky has made yearly backpacking trips into the Sierra for nearly 40 years. In the 1990s, he and his wife Julia were among the first volunteers of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory (GGRO) hawk migration count in Marin Headlands, which started a lifelong interest in birding. An active runner, he has completed dozens of half-marathons (including 13 Pier to Peaks) and the Nine Trails Ultramarathon. He’s climbed Mount Whitney three times and scaled 16 peaks over 12,000 feet high.
Scott and his wife, Julia, and daughter, Celeste, moved to Santa Barbara 25 years ago from the Bay Area. His second daughter, Isabelle, was born shortly thereafter. He worked in sales and marketing in the sensors industry for 30 years, and is now a marketing consultant and technical writer. He holds an MS in manufacturing engineering from UC Berkeley, a BS from the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, and two patents.
As a Monte Vista Elementary School parent volunteer, he helped develop and taught science curricula at all grade levels to help fill in the gaps left due to "No Child Left Behind." He co-founded their annual Science Night program to bring local scientists and engineers together with students and teachers in a table-top "Science Fair" format. In 2006 he ran for and was elected to the Hope School Board for a four-year term.
Scott volunteered for the CIR for the last five years, initially for several clean-up programs, and was part of the original Foothills Forever public awareness campaign, as was his youngest daughter, “Belle”. He had an infamous stand-off with a bulldozer and was later "detained" with several others during the negotiations to buy the West Mesa portion of the San Marcos Foothill Preserve. He’s been a volunteer docent ever since, leading tours and collecting information on the seasonal variations of visitors, plants and animal activities in the preserve.
Carol Gravelle
Carol is a freelance graphic designer living in Camarillo. After graduating from Cal Poly SLO with a BA in Graphic Design, then working in a few advertising agencies and design studios, she went solo and has since been serving local and national clients as Carol Gravelle Graphic Design, specializing in logo design and print media.
Carol has been volunteering with CIR on island projects since 2013, including multi-day trips to Santa Rosa, San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands, and has been a regular on the San Nic nursery crew since 2015. Beyond her avid support of CIR’s mission, she has long supported LA-based Food Forward as a glean leader, leading teams of volunteers in rescuing produce which would otherwise go to waste and donating it to food pantries. And she has supported Santa Barbara-based Los Padres ForestWatch in their goals of environmental stewardship and outreach through 15 years of pro-bono graphic design services, to elevate their visibility, promote their causes and boost fundraising.
Carol is a passionate gardener, CA native plant aficionado, and hiker. She and her husband Brian, a retired civilian engineer for the Navy, have three adult children and enjoy outdoor adventuring and traveling.
Cindy Kimmick
Cindy went on her first CIR volunteer trip in 2006, and has been on the board since CIR attained non-profit status, and began taking school groups to the islands in 2012. Later becoming a National Park Service work leader. She recently went back to school for a Masters in Biology from a zoo based program, focusing on restoration ecology and community based conservation.
She will be retiring soon from her day job as a systems analyst at UCLA to focus on volunteer work for CIR and the Los Angeles Zoo, especially in the areas of environmental education and outreach.
Art Levitt
Art Levitt, a former media and entertainment executive, recently moved to Santa Barbara to pursue his passion for the environment. After receiving a certificate of environmental studies from UCLA Extension, Art has dedicated his time to working with causes that protect and restore critical habitats. An avid underwater photographer, Levitt has had the privilege of exploring and photographing the underwater world of the Channel Islands for over 20 years.
“Being involved with Channel Islands Restoration allows me to support a uniquely talented team with a history of success restoring important habitats in places that I love.” Levitt has been involved in the philanthropy and conservation world, serving as Chief of Staff of the Dalio Foundation. His responsibilities included managing initiatives in Marine Conservation and Global Oceanographic work.
Art’s career in entertainment included positions as CEO of Hard Rock Café International, founding CEO of the movie ticketing company, Fandango, and president of Disney Regional Entertainment. He currently serves on the boards of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and Reef Check Foundation. Levitt completed the Program for Management Development (P.M.D.) at Harvard University and graduated from Southampton College with a B.A. in Biology, focusing on Marine Science. Levitt has served on the Walden Woods & Elton John AIDS Foundations boards and resides in Santa Barbara.
Jeffrey Light
Jeffrey Light joined the Board of Channel Islands Restoration after meeting multiple members of the organization while enjoying all the great nature that Santa Barbara has to offer.
A practicing lawyer who works primarily in the music industry, Jeffrey studied law, mathematics, and philosophy at Columbia University, where he got his degrees “more than a few years ago.” He and his firm remain active in the music industry, and are involved with multiple charitable activities with an emphasis on health issues for musicians. Jeffrey spent over fifteen years as a legal educator, teaching at UCLA Law School and Southwestern University, and he has lectured at Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Michigan.
An active mountain biker, climber and hiker, Jeffrey can be found most weekends (and many very early weekday mornings) spending as much time outside as possible.
Oscar Martinez
Oscar has worked in logistics and transportation for over 20 years. Currently, he is the Senior Manager of the ground network at FedEx in the south bay of San Francisco. Oscar enjoys being part of FedEx's green initiatives, which revolve around reducing the local carbon footprint. His project portfolio includes converting ground into sustainable green areas, transforming the fleet to be more carbon friendly, and sourcing sustainable operational equipment. To pursue a more influential role in the green movement, Oscar is also working toward a B.S. in Environmental Science from Southern New Hampshire University.
Since he was a child, Oscar has had a love for the natural world. He remembers exploring local canyons with friends and visiting family in northern Mexico.
In Mexico, Oscar and his relatives would hike through the countryside. His mother had an unexplainable understanding of plant life. Any garden she nurtured would flourish, and she passed along the uses of traditional medicinal plants to her children.
As an adult, Oscar's passions for conserving the natural world reignited during a backpacking trip through the mountains of West Sumatra, Indonesia.
On that trip he was reminded that he wanted to live more closely intertwined with the natural world. Since then, Oscar has hiked far and wide with his wife, three kids, and numerous friends.
The Channel Islands became a part of Oscar's life 13 years ago when he moved to Ventura County. He realized the importance of the Channel Islands during his first camping trip to Santa Cruz Island.
He went on his first CIR trip seven years ago, where he learned how this local paradise could be protected and restored.
Oscar is excited to join the Board so he can help educate and involve his community in the efforts to conserve these coastal gems.
Ken Owen
Ken Owen is the co-founder and Executive Director of Channel Islands Restoration. He directs the organization and guides the operation. Mr. Owen participates in rare plant surveys, is involved in the formulation of habitat restoration strategies and manages the day-to-day operations.
Mr. Owen has more than twenty years of experience managing large-scale ecological restoration projects in sensitive natural areas on the California coast. He has more than two decades of experience with non-profit management and is a co-founder and Executive Director of Channel Islands Restoration. He has been a restoration specialist for the University of California Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara Audubon Society.
Mr. Owen has more than 30 years of experience educating the general public on a variety of topics including ecology, plant identification and habitat restoration techniques. As an instructor for CIR, Ken has organized and led most of the organization’s educational trips. He has been an instructor for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Ventura County Adult Education, the California Invasive Plant Council, Exploritas and the American Red Cross. He has more than 25 years of experience recruiting, training and managing staff and volunteers on a professional basis for many organizations. He possesses a Qualified Applicator’s License through the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (license number: 39503).
Alikoi Parra
Alikoi Parra is a full-time college student and works as a cultural consultant/monitor. Alikoi is also heavily involved in her Chumash culture. She started working with CIR in 2021, during the Foothills Forever campaign and enjoyed being able to learn more about the plants her ancestors used that sustained them for thousands of years while protecting her ancestors' land. Alikoi’s current project with CIR is the Native Plant Ethnobotanical Chumash Garden located on the San Marcos Foothills Preserve.
Alikoi became interested in ethnobotany as a child due to her Grandma Parra being a Chumash medicine woman in Colonia (Oxnard). Alikoi grew up eating roots straight from the ground and drinking her grandmother's herbal teas. Being a traditional singer and dancer, Alikoi firmly believes in restoring, revitalizing, and sustaining her culture which is why she helps run the Chumash Cultural Circle: hi stok’oy hil xus (Bear Circle) with the Ygnacio Family in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties which focuses on bringing back traditions that were once banned on her own homelands.
Alana M. Rader
Alana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at California State University Northridge. She received her Ph.D. in Geography from Rutgers in 2022 and holds a BSc and MSc in Geography from the University of Victoria. As a broadly trained Physical Geographer, her research examines how landscapes regenerate following different types of disturbances, with projects ranging from coastal beach-dune recovery following vegetation restoration to forest regeneration following various land uses. Her work contributes to broader research interests that connect ecology, land use, policy, and landscape dynamics across scales, and further, how researchers and community members can work together to better understand landscape regeneration, recovery, and restoration. Learn more about Alana’s projects and research here.
Aireona Bonnie Raschke
Aireona Bonnie Raschke, Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary conservation biologist who primarily works in collaborative conservation as both a collaborative leader and facilitator, and a researcher. She is currently the Associate Director of Practice for the Center for Collaborative Conservation out of Colorado State University, and there she specializes in standing up capacity for collaborative efforts across Colorado and the United States as well as directing the Western Collaborative Conservation Network.
She has been in love with the Channel Islands since she first visited Anacapa with her father as a child in the 90s. She has continued to travel to visit them regularly since this first visit to the rocky cliffs of Anacapa. Since then, she has enjoyed no shortage of magic on the islands, including a trip with CIR to San Nicolas in 2018 and her most recent trip to San Miguel in 2022. She is beyond excited to support CIR's amazing work in one of her favorite places in all the world as a member of the board.
Advisory Council
David H. Anderson
David H. Anderson retired in 2010 after a 40-year career as an attorney specializing in environmental law, with a volunteer focus on land conservation law. He co-founded the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County in 1983, where he served as board chair and also served as pro bono legal counsel for many years during which he negotiated the acquisition of the Carpinteria Bluffs, Sedgwick Ranch and Rancho Arroyo Hondo. He is a past board chair of the Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara Foundation, national Land Trust Alliance and also the Wood River Land Trust in Idaho, as well as serving as chair of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission. He was a trustee of the California Nature Conservancy for many years and worked on the transition of Santa Cruz Island after the death of Carey Stanton. He was also an early board member of the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and Housing Trust for Santa Barbara County, and he continues as a former board member and advisor to the Lobero Theatre Foundation. Since retirement, Dave and his wife Lyn have made their base in Ketchum, Idaho where they had skied for many years. They spend time also in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where their daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren live. Dave and Lyn continue to maintain a part-time residence in Santa Barbara where he has worked with Channel Islands Restoration for almost 13 years to obtain permits and funding to restore the archaeological site known as Hammonds Meadow in partnership with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
Russ Charvonia
Russ has worked in the financial services industry since 1980. He is a Senior Wealth Advisor and Managing Director for Mariner Wealth advisors, providing financial and wealth management advice to individual and business clients. He holds several professional designations, earning his Juris doctor degree from Ventura College of Law in 2003. He was admitted to the California Bar in 2004. He is the founder of Channel Islands Law Group in Ventura, which specializes in estate and charitable gift planning. Russ also has a mediation practice, where he helps parties identify and craft creative solutions to difficult problems.
Russ volunteers his professional services to several non-profit organizations in his community, including having served as president of the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation board. He is founding president of the Worldwide Civility Council, and heads the Masonic Family Civility Project. He also previously served as a director on the board of The Midnight Mission for two years. He is active in Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, having served as its president. He volunteers for Channel Islands Restoration, helping to restore the Channel Islands to their native condition. He previously served as treasurer for the Conflict Resolution Institute of Ventura County. Russ is also on the Advisory Council of the Ventura Land Trust.
He served as Grand Master of Masons of California in 2014/15, serving more than 50,000 members. Along with co-author Michael Ashley, he has written The Civility Mosaic: How Anyone Can Use the Principles of Freemasonry to Repair Our World. Russ lives in Ventura with his wife, Linda. He has a daughter, Alissa; son and daughter-in-law, Keith and Kendall; and grandsons, Tanner and Hudson.
Wayne R. Ferren Jr
Wayne has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology and a Masters in Biology from Rutgers University. He worked as a botanist at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for 26 years (1978-2004), serving in various capacities including the Executive Director of the Museum of Systematics and Ecology, Director of Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve, and Assistant Director of the UCSB Natural Reserve System. During this time, he founded a pioneering program in restoration ecology now part of the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration at UCSB. Wayne also served as President of the California Botanical Society and editor of Madroño¾A West American Journal of Botany. Wayne is the author of numerous scientific articles on plants, ecology, wetlands, and ecological restoration, and is the recipient of twelve environmental awards and acknowledgments. He also is the author of Conscientious Objector¾A Journey of Peace, Justice, Culture, and Environment (Archway Publishing 2021), a memoir and cultural commentary on the years leading up to his experience as a conscientious objector performing alternative civilian service during the Vietnam War (1971-1973). In this capacity, he worked in the Botany Department of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and conducted research on freshwater tidal wetlands. For the past 20 years, Wayne has been an environmental consultant in New Jersey, Nevada, and California. He now resides in Oxnard.
Greg Giloth
Greg was born in Glen Ellyn, Ill on March 6, 1947 and attended local schools until his junior year of high school. In 1963 he moved with his family to Summit, NJ and graduated from Summit High School in 1965.
Greg has worked in computers and high tech for most of his career. In 1972 he graduated from Northern Illinois University with a BS in Marketing and an MBA. In 1974 he made his way to the SF Bay Area where he started his career in sales and worked for Burroughs Corporation for 7 years before taking over the Large Account Branch in Santa Barbara. In 1983 he left Burroughs and started with a string of software tech startups that lasted until 2013. His last position was with Wind River Systems, a division of Intel Corporation where he was a Regional Account Manager in the Aerospace and Defense Industry. He was responsible for the software needs of accounts such as Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and JPL in Southern CA. He actively worked with JPL to put the Rovers on Mars and Wind River software runs on every Mars Rover on the planet’s surface today.
Greg and his spouse Ellen Easton have a ranch south of Cuyama in northern SB County against the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range. They enjoy back country hikes, backpacking and sharing the wilderness with their grandchildren.
Dennis Houghton
Dennis Houghton has over 35 years of management experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and biomedical software industries. Dennis started his career in Santa Barbara with over 15 years at pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle & Co., where he served in many positions including as the National Director of Managed Care Programs. Following Searle, Dennis held positions at Synergen, Systems Consulting Company, MedImmune, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, and Durata Therapeutics, where he was responsible for developing national account strategy and business relationships with the nation’s top health systems. In 2015, Dennis joined Alpha Logic, leading its human healthcare - GI Logic Hospital Business. Dennis received a bachelor’s degree in Geography from California State University, Northridge and resides in Santa Barbara, California. The physical world has always been a passion for Dennis, and his work as a Board Member with Channel Islands Restoration melds his cultural, economic, and physical geography interests with a career in the human biomedical arena. Dennis was appointed to a four-year term (2019-2022) as an Airport Commissioner at Santa Barbara Airport.
Karl Hutterer
Karl Hutterer grew up on a small subsistence farm in the Austrian Alps. He looks back on an academic career as an archaeologist at the University of Michigan and the University of Washington. He conducted research in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, focusing chiefly on long-term human interactions with tropical ecosystems. He moved to Santa Barbara in 2000 to become Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Since retiring from this position in early 2013 he has been devoting most of his time and energies to working with the Community Environmental Council and other nonprofits on educating the public about climate change and finding and promoting solutions to mitigate this existential threat and build resilience to impacts we no longer can avoid.
Julie Kummel
20-year volunteer and supporter of CIR. Retired nurse and teacher.
Interests. Habitat restoration, outdoor recreation, outdoor education.
Hank Mitchel
Hank is a multi-generation Californian and a lifelong outdoorsman. He has hiked, camped, and explored throughout California, including on all eight of our California Channel Islands. Efforts to preserve and share our natural environment have always been of primary interest. He currently serves as a Trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Previously he was a docent at the Museum and the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps. In addition, he has been a trustee of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum and Santa Barbara Channel Keeper. He has supported and regularly donated to Channel Islands Restoration for over 10 years. Hank and his wife Mari are and have been active in various philanthropic efforts throughout Santa Barbara for many years. They live in Hope Ranch.
Marianne Para
Marianne Parra is Chumash with lineage to Santa Ynez, Goleta, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura. Marianne spent many years from early childhood to late teens on the Santa Ynez Reservation with family, learning and practicing culture and being connected with elders. Family and building connections within her communities have always been very important. She has a lengthy background in the medical field and doing volunteer work with domestic violence survivors. Her education in forensic psychology is on hold while she explores Chumash ethnobotany and other areas. Marianne is the granddaughter of a Chumash healer/medicine woman who first shared stories with her regarding pygmy woolly mammoths in the area long before any had been discovered.
Phil White
CIR Board member Phil White lives in Ojai with his wife Suzanne. Their home is only blocks from the trails in the National Forest and they take advantage of hiking on a regular basis.
Phil is an engineer and also has a passion for flora and fauna. In addition to serving on the CIR Board, Phil is on the Board of Directors for the Ventura Botanical Gardens. He is associated with the Ojai Valley Museum and is currently curating an exhibit scheduled to open later in 2021 entitled "Flora and Fauna in the Time of Climate Change" that will include his collection of Ojai-area insects. He is very committed to addressing climate change and serves on climate emergency committees in the City of Ojai and the County of Ventura.
Besides helping with CIR restoration projects at Point Mugu, the old Camarillo nursery, and on San Nicolas Island, he designed and installed a native plant restoration project at a gypsum mine in Quatal Canyon in Ventura County, and initiated a cerrado forest restoration project at a former cattle ranch in the Brazilian state of Goias.
Phil says: "I am very excited to be a part of CIR. The mission to revegetate the islands and mainland with native plants really resonates with me. The passion CIR's Board, staff and volunteers have to carry out this mission is just so inspirational."
Our thoughts are with the friends and family of Geoffrey Jewel, CIR Board member. His passing leaves us shocked
and saddened. He will forever be remembered as part of the CIR family. May he rest in peace.